September 20, 2010
As a teacher here in Peru I encounter a wide range of professors. I’ve met a couple interesting ones for sure. The other day I had an interesting conversation with a professor out at Yerbas Buenas, an elementary school about 4 Km away from AMOR Projects. It started out with:
“Tu eres una maestra bonita,” (You are a beautiful teacher) that seems to be my alternate name here. I tend to just ignore it or roll my eyes. First he asked me where I was from.
“Georgia,” I replied.
“Oh, Georgia, that’s one of the states that was separate from the United States,” all in Spanish of course.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“You know the movie Patriot?”
“Yes, I know it.”
“With Mel Gibson?”
“Yes, Mel Gibson is in the movie.”
“Yes, he drinks alcohol.”
“That’s true, he does drink alcohol, his life is a little sad,” I replied.
“All the lives of Hollywood are sad right?”
“Not all of them have sad lives, there are some who don’t drink alcohol or take drugs and have happy lives. But yes, there are a lot of sad lives.”
“What do you think is the message of Hollywood?”
“The message?”
“Yes, the message of Hollywood.”
I had to think about that. What is the message of Hollywood? Based on the majority of their movies I would have to say, sex, drugs, provocative clothing, dirty dancing, spending nights at the club, driving fast cars, having multiple women, I could go on. But the only thing I could say was,
“Uh, no say, pero el mensaje no esta muy bien (Uh, I don’t know, but the message isn’t very good).” Lame.
It did make me think. If all that people here in Peru see of America is our movies, it’s not surprising that they think American women are loose and want to be whistled at, hollered at, and honked at among other things, cause that’s what the women in the movies like.
Well he was done with that subject, moving on.
“Who did you vote for? Did you vote for Obama?”
I’m not sure what they think of American Presidents or candidates so I pretended not to understand the question. It worked.
“There haven’t been any black Presidents before right? He is the only black President in your country?”
“Yes, he is the first black President in the U.S.”
“That’s because of the racism—there has been a lot of racism in your country.” Man, did this guy read all of our history books? Or just watch movies on the history of America?
“Yes, in the past there was a lot of racism. There still racism in the U.S. now, but not as bad as in the past.”
“Yes, I know. I know your history. There was a lot of racism in your country in the past. His family is black too right? His wife and kids?”
It would appear that would be true….”Yes.”
“Do you have a love in the States?” Goodness, this guy jumps from subject to subject as often as he blinks.
“No, I don’t have a love in the States,” wrong answer; always say ‘yes.’ But I didn’t want to have to make up a boyfriend.
“Do you have a love here in Peru?”
Say yes! Say yes!
“No, I don’t have a love here in Peru.”
“Oh, that’s ok, cupid will find you, and he’ll bring you a love.”
“Thanks.”
“What’s your name?”
Hm, that probably would have been a good question to start out with.
“My name is Jenessa.”
“JA-nessa?”
“JE-nessa.” My name is so hard to pronounce here and no one ever remembers it. I usually don’t care, but I will be living here for 8 months, I kind of want to be called by my name.
“What instrument is that?” He points to the backpack containing the ukulele on my back.
“It’s a ukulele, a small version of a guitar. It only has four strings, a guitar has six.”
“Play a song for us.” By now there are two students from the secondary school listening in on the conversation.
“Uh, ok.” What should I play? I decided to play/sing the camp song I had just taught the kids, Your Everlasting Love. I finished, they clapped, I said thank you, then put it away. By this time the other professor was ready to take me back on his motorcycle. The same one that burned my leg, I’m really cautious when I get on a motorcycle now. Too bad I had to get burned to learn that.
Random conversations with people, I like them.
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